By Donald E. Wetmore
Time Management
Don Wetmore
There’s a rule known as the Pareto principle. It teaches us, for example, that 20 percent of our efforts produce 80 percent of our results. An additional 80 percent of our efforts will only yield an additional 20 percent of results. The first thrust of effort then is the most productive use of our time. The latter thrust is very costly.
For example, let’s say you allocate two hours (which we will represent as 20 percent of your time) to clean a room, a basement or a garage. Let us say that you will be able to get it to be 80 percent clean. It won’t be perfect, but it will be acceptable, and the job is well done.
However, to squeeze out an additional 20 percent of results – to make it “perfectly clean” – will require an additional 80 percent of your time, or eight hours.
This rule has a lot of applications as you manage your time. If you are in sales, you may find how 20 percent of your customers give you 80 percent of your sales and the other 80 percent of your customers give you the remaining 20 percent of your business. Where then should you spend 80 percent of your time? With the fifth of customers who are giving you most of your business.
It may not always work with exact mathematical precision, but typically the small chunk of input yields the biggest chuck of output or results.
Most of us benefit from this rule intuitively. When you and I approach a task (clean a room, prepare a term paper, write up a project) we decide to put in a reasonable amount of time and effort to achieve a reasonable result. The result may not be perfect, but it will be acceptable, and this will allow us to devote our time to tackling other endeavors.
We put in a reasonable amount of time and produce a decent report. It may not be perfect, but putting in a whole lot more time to make it a little better is not cost-effective and therefore not worth the effort.
Those who suffer from the curse of perfectionism do not understand this principle. Their goal is always perfection, which, realistically, is not always attainable. For example, you cannot clean a room perfectly. As you clean, dust settles and it gets dirty again. Any written report can be polished and improved with more time and effort. Striving for perfection is always stressful and frustrating.
The overall productivity of perfectionists suffers as they spend an inordinate amount of time on a few things, trying to make them perfect, rather than a lesser amount of time on a lot of things that will multiply their results.
The curse is cured when they abandon the need to do their tasks perfectly, when they understand that excellence in performance is attaining a degree of perfection, not absolute perfection. This does not compromise one’s standard of excellence in performance. It enhances excellent performance with increased results.
Don Wetmore is a certified business coach and the author of “The Productivity Handbook” and “Organizing Your Life.” Contact him at 203-394-8216 or ctsem@msn.com.